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Opinion: Green New Deal is the recovery plan Alberta needs

Author of the article:

Bronwen Tucker

Publishing date:

April 29, 2020 • 3 minute read

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) speaks as Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) (R) and other Congressional Democrats listen during a news conference in front of the U.S. Capitol February 7, 2019 in Washington, DC. Sen. Markey and Rep. Ocasio-Cortez held a news conference to unveil their Green New Deal resolution.Alex Wong/ Getty Images

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Last week, Premier Jason Kenney became unusually flustered at a news conference in response to a question about energy transition and a “Green New Deal.”

In response, Kenney insisted that the only possible future of oil and gas is a bright one before questioning the reporter’s credentials. “That kind of question, in the middle of an economic crisis, from a Calgary-based media outlet — really frankly throws me for a loop,” Kenney said to the reporter.

Opinion: Green New Deal is the recovery plan Alberta needsBack to video

His response comes at a time when Alberta crude is hovering near $1 a barrel, after cratering into negative territory just last week. This moment has only intensified the systemic risks that were already facing the patch.

Alberta is now facing world-shifting choices that will not only shape how we weather COVID-19, but also the overlapping crises that have shaped how the pandemic is playing out — job losses in oil and gas, eroding public services, systemic racism, and climate change.

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We can expect to see billions in stimulus and recovery efforts in response to this moment. We can pour this money into the declining oil and gas industry as the Alberta government has started to do or we can invest in new sectors, strong health care and education, and a resilient society instead.

The answer has to be door No. 2. The world is starting to move on from oil whether Alberta is ready or not. There is no sales pitch good enough to convince people to invest in the most expensive source of a dying commodity. What we are seeing now is the beginning of an unmanaged decline that would put investors first and workers last. The collapse of Appalachian coal, where workers have had to blockade trains for unpaid wages because of overnight bankruptcies, provides a foreboding example.

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Canada’s $13-billion auto bailouts in 2009 provide another cautionary tale. Chrysler and GM have since laid off most of their workforce in Canada and much of that public money was never recovered.

Since the crash of oil prices in 2014, Parkland Institute research shows 50,000 oil and gas jobs have never come back, despite the sector receiving billions a year in government subsidies. Meanwhile, the five biggest Canadian oil companies have put their investors first by paying out dividends and share buybacks to the tune of $10 billion a year.

In contrast, a Green New Deal for Alberta would mean directing remaining industry profits, COVID-19 stimulus money, and taxes on the super-rich to protect workers and communities through a just transition. This means, yes, investing in well-known “green” sectors like building retrofits, local and long-distance public transit, and solar and wind energy.

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But it also means building up an even wider variety of low-carbon sectors that will help us pave the way to economic stability, including healthcare, IT, education, and sustainable agriculture. It means providing education and training for new jobs, guaranteed income support, and pensions for oil workers as well as the communities who were disproportionately hurt by or locked out of the benefits the oil and gas sector has provided. It means ensuring First Nation and Métis land rights are upheld and that they receive meaningful royalties for past production on their land.

The Green New Deal has gained the most traction in the United States, but it has roots in the U.K., South Korea, and Spain and and many other places too. Perhaps most relevant for Alberta, coalitions in American fossil-fuel producing regions likeAlaska, the Gulf South, and Appalachia have developed road maps for what a Green New Deal would look like in their jurisdictions.

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These initiatives are uniting fossil-fuel workers, education and health-care workers, Indigenous communities, unions, and others behind a common vision that provides answers on the scale of the crises we are seeing unfold.

We think this is why Kenney resorted to personal insults in response to the Green New Deal question on Friday — he knows this is a movement that can unite Albertans against his government’s apparent plans for continued austerity for everyone but oil and gas investors.

Bronwen Tucker is an energy policy researcher with Climate Justice Edmonton, a volunteer-run advocacy group which has been holding workshops on and campaigning for a Green New Deal in Alberta over the last year.

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